Russia sentences veteran of the anti-terrorist operation in Eastern Ukraine from Nova Kakhovka, abducted in 2022

A court in the Russian Federation recently sentenced a resident of Nova Kakhovka, who was abducted by the Russians in October 2022. This is a veteran of the anti-terrorist operation in Eastern Ukraine and public activist Leonid Kondratskyі. Before the occupation of Nova Kakhovka, he worked as the deputy head of municipal security in Nova Kakhovka.

The Russian Southern District Military Court found the man guilty of allegedly undergoing training for terrorist activities and of allegedly being a member of a “terrorist union”. At the same time, neither the official website of the court nor other open sources indicate what punishment the court imposed on Leonid Kondratskyі. However, in general, the practice of considering such cases in Russian courts provides for a sentence of 10 to 20 years in prison.

The known details of Kondratskyі’s detention cast doubt on whether he had any terrorist training or plans to carry out terrorist attacks.

“After the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, Kondratskyі worked as an evacuation bus driver transporting residents from the Berislavskyі district to Novaya Kakhovka. In early March 2022, Russian soldiers arrested him and held him captive for 10 days. Then he was arrested again in April – this time for 17 days. And on October 7, five soldiers without identification marks came to his home to search it, took away his registered weapons and himself.

Leonid Kondratsky was held in Simferopol’s Pre-Trial Detention Center-2 for at least a year without confirming his illegal detention and without charge. According to some reports, the trigger for the Russians was the man’s middle name – Adolfovich, and his participation in the anti-terrorist operation in eastern Ukraine.

In early 2025, a resident of Novaya Kakhovka was transferred to a colony in the city of Kamyshin, Volgograd region, where he continued to be held in isolation for at least another year. The case was brought to the Russian court only at the end of 2025 and was considered in just three sessions.

Legal experts emphasize that the prosecution of residents of the occupied territory outside its borders violates the norms of international humanitarian law and has the characteristics of a war crime.